


Nothing Wrong, Nothing Right

by NellieOleson



Category: Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-02 17:01:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellieOleson/pseuds/NellieOleson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This started out as a little random fic that I was posting in teeny pieces. I think I made it to part 5. Anyway, it grew and now it's finished. Here it is in its entirety.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Wrong, Nothing Right

****Part 1****

****

 

****The last thing Jack sees before launching himself into the wormhole is Carter hitting the ground on the wrong side of the DHD. He lands ass first on the ramp and the steel is unforgiving. Energy blasts sail over his head and pepper the wall behind him. He has enough time to think landing on his ass was a lucky break before Daniel pulls him off the ramp.

"Where's Sam?" Daniel yells with all the horror Jack feels.

Jack ignores the question. The air feels wrong in his lungs.

"Close the iris," he shouts at the glass wall. It's not what he wants to say and the words feel like a betrayal. He can't spit them out fast enough.

The iris doesn't close as quickly as it should and Jack realizes he's holding his breath. Maybe they all are.

Everything is silent. The energy blasts stop and maybe Carter and Teal'c are storming the gate on the other side.

The wrong Jaffa steps into the SGC and he's shot before the end of his staff weapon appears. The sound of his body hitting the ramp echoes through the room. It sets off a chain of motion and people start moving with a purpose as their training takes over.

The iris closes and Jack stares at it. ****

****  
Part 2****

******  
**The first thing Sam sees after hitting the ground is Teal'c's ass. For a while, she's content to watch it flex and relax as he carries her through trees that seem to have no notion of personal space. Her stomach hurts, she has no idea how long it's been bouncing on his shoulder.

"Teal'c." His pace doesn't slow, maybe he didn't hear her. She tries talking louder. "Teal'c. Put me down."

"I can not." He's not even breathing hard.

That's all she gets from him. He's carrying his weapon and her pack in his free hand and she takes a moment to be impressed. He starts moving faster and her head feels like a gyroscope. _Teal'c is the best_ , she thinks before passing out for the second time.

She's cold the next time she wakes. Cold and blind. The world is completely black and she passes a hand over her face to make sure she hasn't been blindfolded.

"Teal'c?" She props herself up on one elbow and feels around in the darkness.

"Major Carter." Teal'c's voice floats in over her left shoulder.

"Am I blind?" She asks Teal'c's voice.

"I do not believe so. It is extremely dark and I could not risk a fire. It is likely the Jaffa are still searching the area." He places a hand on her shoulder. It's warm and solid and he's the only one who could have pulled this off.

She puts her hand on his. "What happened?"

**  
**Part 3****

****

 

****"It was an ambush, sir." Jack stalks around the briefing room and chairs swivel to follow his progress. He keeps expecting Hammond to order him into a seat but he doesn't and Jack is grateful. Carter and Teal'c are missing and sitting still isn't going to bring them back. Pacing probably isn't much help either but it's all he's got.

"I'm not so sure," says Daniel. Jack glares at him, he's not in the mood to be contradicted. Daniel continues. "They seemed surprised to see us. I think they just...got lucky."

Jack thinks about that. They'd been about twenty meters past the D.H.D. when the Jaffa had emerged from the tree line. The Jaffa had seemed surprised. Then there had been a lot of shooting and running and Carter lying on the ground. He didn't see her get hit but his imagination has been happy to supply those images for him. Sometimes there's blood and burning flesh and she's wearing a scream he can't hear. The worst images include an audio track and she's reaching for him, calling his name, and there's nothing he can do.

"Jack?" Daniel's voice is all softness and concern.

Jack's isn't. "What does it matter, Daniel?" He's trying not to yell, he really is. "Carter and Teal'c are missing and we're sitting on our asses talking about whether or not the Jaffa were planning a surprise party." And was it really just dumb luck? Jack wants to punch Daniel for putting the idea in his head.

Daniel looks like he's been awake for too long. Jack still wants to hit him. "It matters, Jack. If the Jaffa had some other reason for being on that planet, they might not have put a lot of effort into capturing Sam and Teal'c." Daniel looks down at his reflection in the table. He's leaving out an important point.

"Assuming they got away," Jack says.

"Yes," Daniel says to his reflection. "Assuming they got away."

Jack's the only one who saw Carter hit the ground. "Carter was down, there's no way she got away," he says. The room pauses. Jack drops himself into a chair because Carter went down and he couldn't save her.

Hammond finally cracks the silence. "What about Teal'c?"

**  
**Part 4****

****

 

****Teal’c hesitates. Major Carter would want the truth. “I believe you tripped, Major Carter,” he finally says.

“I tripped?”

“Indeed.”

“Wow. That’s--, that’s really embarrassing, Teal’c.” She’s quiet for a moment and Teal’c is grateful for the darkness. “I think I’m glad I don’t remember.”

The terrain surrounding the Stargate was extremely rough; it had been difficult to traverse at a walk. Teal’c doesn’t remind her. She doesn’t need his reassurance and it makes little difference now. Now they must concern themselves with returning to Earth.

“I was able to retrieve you before the Jaffa overran our position.”

She doesn’t thank him and Teal’c is pleased. Major Carter knows him well. “How did you manage to outrun them?”

“I believe they attempted to follow Colonel O’Neill and Daniel Jackson through the Stargate before beginning their pursuit.” The Jaffa will be punished for allowing all four of them to escape. He and Major Carter should never have been given the opportunity to evade capture.

“They’ve probably changed our iris codes.”

Teal’c has already considered that. It is only one of many obstacles. He is pleased that she seems to be thinking logically once more. She had said many things that made little sense before losing consciousness. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better,” she says.

It’s an admission that weighs heavily on Teal’c’s mind. Their escape will be much more difficult if Major Carter cannot assist him. He moves to her side and she falls asleep against him while he keeps watch.

**  
**Part 5****

****

 

****The MALP is destroyed before it reaches the DHD. It's a quick death. The wobbly video feed explodes into white light before a static storm blows across the screen. Losing the MALP wasn't entirely unexpected, but Daniel's stomach drops anyway. At least some part of him is still capable of optimism.

The technicians get to work and the twenty-second loop of video is replayed on every available piece of digital real estate. Everyone stares intently at the grainy images, like gawkers at the scene of some horrific accident. _And isn't that exactly what they are?_ Daniel looks for some sign

_(piece?)_

of Sam or Teal’c as the MALP trundles into enemy territory but all he can make out are the surprised faces of Jaffa and a craggy field of rocks.

Jack is the only one in the room not staring at a screen. Jack is looking down at the gate room instead, where there are no monitors waiting to broadcast his failure to keep his team safe. The gate stares back, solemn and non-judgmental. Daniel puts a hand on Jack’s shoulder to get his attention because Jack is the only one who knows exactly where Sam's body would be lying if it were still there growing cold in dirt. The muscles under Jack's shirt are tense and unyielding and when he turns, he’s wearing a look Daniel hasn’t seen in a long time. It’s the same look that had greeted him in the mirror for months after he’d lost Sha’re for the last time.  

General Hammond curses softly and tells Walter to lock out Sam’s iris code. The fact that they all knew it was coming doesn't make it any easier to hear. It doesn't mean anything, really, Daniel thinks. They'll still do everything they can to try and bring Sam and Teal'c home again. Still, it seems wrong to cut them off and change the locks on the door. It's so final. He squeezes his eyes shut against the headache he can feel building behind them. He really needs to get some sleep.

Jack starts to say something but General Hammond doesn’t let him finish. He shuts him down with a look and some soft-spoken words. “We’ll try again in twenty-four hours,” he says. It's a painful decision, one Daniel is glad he doesn't have to make. General Hammond spares a look for Jack, and Daniel has no trouble seeing the unspoken apology on his face.

“They could be dead in twenty-four hours,” Jack says.  He's right. They could be dead in twenty-four hours.  But  Daniel figures if they're alive now, there's a good chance they'll be alive the next day. And it's not like they haven't escaped from worse situations in the past--and probably the future and in alternate realities too.

General Hammond considers Jack's comment for a moment. Or pretends to. Risk assessment is the foundation of his job and he's already reached the point where the odds have tipped into Sam and Teal'c are probably dead territory. “The gate is heavily guarded, Jack. I can’t send a team into that mess,” he finally says. _Oh, but he wants to_. He might have trouble explaining the decision later but Hammond would probably love to send a whole slew of people through that gate for the slim chance of finding Sam and Teal'c alive.

“I’m not asking for a team,” Jack says. The implication is clear. Jack is willing to go alone but General Hammond isn’t willing to put any more lives at risk. At least not outwardly where it can be questioned and used against him. He shakes his head and holds up a hand, ending the conversation.

“I’ve made my decision,” General Hammond says before walking out.  
 ****

****Part 6****

****

 

****Sam is alone the next time she wakes up on alien soil. The sun is still too low in the sky to burn off the cold mist hovering above the ground and it's seeping through her clothes like the clammy hands of an awkward teenage boy. The cool air feels good on her face and it's making her head feel less like it bounced off a large rock. It might have been a small rock, she reallysn't sure, it's just better for her ego to assume it was large. Large, and sharp and gifted with surprisingly good aim for a rock. She touches the gash on her head lightly, not wanting to disturb the dried blood stuck to her hair. She might need stitches. It's been a while since she had stitches in her head. Not that she keeps track of that sort of thing in a spreadsheet on her laptop.

Something in the trees starts chattering at the rising sun. It's a nervous sound, a _hey, wouldn't I make a tasty breakfast_ sound _._ She looks up, but it's whatever passes for Spring on this world and the canopy is thick with new growth. She can't find the animal through the leaves. The sound of approaching footsteps silences the animal and Sam pulls out her zat. It’s probably just Teal’c returning but she’s learned not to take things for granted.

“Major Carter?” Teal’c’s voice is like distant thunder, a muted rumble in the heavy air. She doesn’t lower her zat until he comes in to full view.

“Teal’c. I thought you went home without me.”

“I did not,” he says.

“I see that," she tells him. "Have a seat." Her sleeping bag is still warm and she’s using it to protect her ass from the damp ground. She slides to one side and pats her evacuated butt print, inviting Teal'c to sit beside her. Her stomach rumbles an impatient reminder that she hasn't eaten since leaving the SGC so she pulls an MRE out of her pack. Sam picks out the cheese and crackers, hands Teal'c the pound cake and hopes they have enough water to survive the meal. The pound cake alone could suck the life out of a small lake.

“Are you feeling better, Major Carter?” Teal'c asks. It's his subtle way of finding out if she'll be any less of a burden today.

Sam takes a moment to assess herself while she kneads her cheese packet into submission. Teal'c needs to know her limitations. The cheese is almost pliable when she decides she is feeling better. Her hair is stuck to her head on one side but she’s not bleeding anymore so she’ll probably live. “I think so.”

Teal’c nods, taking her at her word. Colonel O'Neill would have questioned her more thoroughly. “The remaining Jaffa have gathered around the gate. I believe they are preparing to leave this planet," Teal'c tells her.

_Leave?_ That doesn’t make sense. They've barely been pursued, even if she counted the time she wasn't actually conscious. SG-1 are valuable prisoners. Too valuable to be allowed to escape so easily. They've worked hard to earn the hatred of the Goa'uld. The Jaffa can't just leave. “Shouldn’t they have tried harder to find us?”

“Yes.”

If the Stargate program ever goes public, Sam is pretty sure Teal’c could have a very successful career in politics. “Is it possible they don’t know who we are?” It seems unlikely but not much else would explain the lack of serious pursuit.

“It is possible.”

“Really?”

“If these Jaffa belong to an insignificant Goa’uld.”

_Insignificant Goa'uld._ Sam finds that funny. Any Goa’uld who was in fact insignificant was likely to be in a severe state of denial. They all wanted to be the most flamboyant fish in the pond. “Did you see any symbols? Do you have any idea who the Jaffa belong to?"

Teal’c stares at the tightly packed trees for a moment. “No,” he says. It's his final word on the subject.  
 ****

****Part 7****

****

 

****Jack tries his best to pace in the small room, his legs are too long and all the turning around is making him dizzy. They should have sent a damn team through yesterday. _  
(turn)_  
Sending another MALP is a waste of time. All it can do is take pictures of itself getting blown to hell. _Hey, Ma, watch this!_ They should mount some missiles on the damn things.  
 _(turn)_  
He glances down at the gate room as he passes behind Walter. The gate is spinning too slowly, like the Wheel of Fortune approaching the Big Money slot. The MALP is waiting patiently on the ramp. Obviously it's unaware of what happened last time. _  
(turn)_ _  
If a MALP is blown up on another world and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Does anybody care?_ Certainly not Jack O'Neill. Jack O'Neill could give two shits about a glorified golf cart getting blown to bits. _  
__(turn)_  
On any world.

Chevron six locks and Jack stops pacing. He stares at the back of Walter's head, waiting for the magic words. They don't come and Walter needs a haircut. Something is wrong. The damn gate just keeps spinning. Jack steps forward and looks at Walter. Walter looks confused. “Chevron seven will not engage,” he tells the console. The console takes note and flashes an appropriate red warning. _Bankrupt!_ The crowd in Jack's head lets out a collective sound of disappointment. There will be no Bonus Round for Jack.

“Try again,” Jack snaps. It’s not Walter’s fault but Jack’s built up too much nervous energy to be tactful.

“Yes, sir.” Walter replies without hesitation. He's smarter than he looks.

Trying again doesn’t help and Jack runs through all the possible scenarios that would prevent the wormhole from forming. None of them are good. If Carter were here, she might know of some less ominous reasons for the gate failure. But Carter isn't here and everything Jack thinks of involves large explosions and lots of death. He needs more options. _I'd like to buy a vowel, Pat._ No, Jack thinks, all the vowels in the world won't help this time. Vanna can take a break.

Jack heads up the stairs before the room can finish closing in on him. Daniel and Hammond are watching the gate through the briefing room window. They look about as optimistic as Jack feels. "The gate won't lock," he tells them. It's a stupid thing to say. They know damn well the gate won't lock. He just can't think of anything else.

Daniel is finally starting to look like he thinks Sam and Teal'c might not be coming back. And why shouldn't he? The gate failure is almost good news at this point. At least they won't lose another MALP. Daniel's expression makes Jack rethink his own pessimism. He's always been on the other side of Daniel's emotional teeter-totter. "What about Prometheus?" Jack asks.

Hammond looks at his feet for a moment and Jack knows he isn't going to like his answer. "That'll take a decision from higher up," Hammond says. "I'll do what I can but even if we get the authorization, it will take at least a week to reach the planet. I'm sorry, son."

Jack doesn't want sorry, he wants some fucking space ships that can get to that planet in less than a week.  
 ****

****Part 8****

****

 

****Sam is bored and she has to pee. The Jaffa left hours ago and they've been staring at the gate ever since. Tom Petty was right, the waiting really is the hardest part. Teal'c looks like he could wait for weeks. Like he was born to wait. Like waiting is his favorite thing on Earth, or any other world. Sam picks at the ground. Even the dirt is boring. Not that dirt is ever really exciting. Except for that valley on PK4-658, that was some cool dirt. “How long do you think we should wait here?” She asks Teal'c.

“It is likely some Jaffa have remained behind to capture us should we attempt to leave,” Teal'c says.

That doesn’t really answer her question. She knows _why_ they are waiting, what she doesn't know is how long the Jaffa will stay. She stops playing in the dust and watches the gate instead. She’ll just have to trust Teal’c’s insight into Jaffa strategy. “I guess there are worse places to be stranded,” she says. It's supposed to be an invitation to conversation but Teal'c doesn't seem interested. Sam wonders if he wishes she'd just shut the hell up.

She tries again. “Do you ever miss any of your friends on Chulak?”

“Friendship among my people is rare,” says Teal’c. “Allegiances change quickly.”

“That’s depressing, Teal’c.” But yeah, it doesn't make much sense to make friends with someone who might be on the business end of your weapon the next time you saw them. Sam gives up. They should probably be quiet anyway. No sense in getting captured now just because she was bored and chatty. She pulls a notebook out of her pocket. For some reason, the military loved notebooks. She'd been advised to keep one in her pocket as long as she could remember. Colonel O'Neill had made an entire fleet of origami birds out of his when they'd been stuck off-world after rescuing Thor. Sam didn't know how to make an origami anything so mostly she just worked out equations in hers. Her current notebook is new and clean and ripe for equating. She spends the rest of the day working out the amount of spacetime curvature generated by the energized naquedah in a stargate. It might be a useful someday unlike Colonel O'Neill's paper birds. And so the day limps by in a haze of numbers and symbols and the occasional click of a mechanical pencil.

Teal'c decides to sneak up on the gate the following morning. Sam wants to kiss him. The heavy morning fog reduces their visibility but provides excellent cover. It's a fair trade and it feels good to finally _do_ something. Ten yards after they start, a cargo ship appears out of nowhere and they freeze. _Just two rabbits going tharn,_ Sam thinks _. They'll be run down any second now._ She's certain their position has been made but the ship passes over them and lands in the clearing, blocking their view of the gate. They watch as two Jaffa appear like a magic trick from the trees. At least they hadn't waited for nothing.

The ship takes off the moment the Jaffa are on board and they have the world to themselves. Hopefully. They decide against gating directly to the Alpha Site, picking five relatively safe planets as stepping stones instead. Sam rubs her hands together and dials up the first planet. Every chevron flashes and the gate refuses to spin. _That's not right_. Sam pokes around inside the DHD while Teal'c waits for the ambush they thought they'd avoided.

“I think they tried to sabotage the DHD.”

“Perhaps they found nothing of value on this planet,” says Teal’c.

Sure. Or perhaps they plan on coming back with some ships. Sam takes a closer look at the guts of the DHD. The Jaffa must not have wanted to do any permanent damage. She won’t even need any of the spare parts she carries in her pack to undo their handiwork. “Amateurs.” Sam laughs. “I’ll have it fixed in ten minutes.”

**  
**Part 9****

****

 

****It's been two days since Sam and Teal'c didn't make it back. The SGC is starting to feel less like home and more like the giant concrete bunker under a mountain it had been in the beginning. He's never been claustrophobic, and the SGC isn't much of a tight space, but Daniel finds himself needing to get out from under its oppressive mass more often. That's exactly what he's planning to do in about five minutes. If he can find Jack, he'll drag him out too. He's starting to worry about Jack's sanity.

Daniel is in the control room after another failed attempt to reach the planet. They've been dialing every hour. Whoever pays the electric bill is going to pitch a fit. Prometheus is still in orbit, Jack is pissed about that, but short of hijacking the ship, there's nothing they can do. He glances down at the gate, once a doorway to knowledge and adventure, it's become a great, gaping maw, waiting patiently to swallow them all.

Daniel is halfway out the door when the gate lights up like a winning slot machine.

"Unscheduled off-world activation!" Walter announces. He glances over his shoulder, his round face full of anticipation. "It's the alpha site."

*****

Teal'c comes through first, he doesn't look like he's been missing for days. In fact, Daniel is pretty sure Teal'c looks better than the half of the team that wasn't stranded and had access to showers. It's almost embarrassing. Whatever happened out there, Sam bore the brunt of it. She slips through the event horizon a moment later looking like she's been missing for weeks. Sam and Teal'c didn't waste any time getting cleaned up at the alpha site and head wounds are messy. But at least she's alive and walking. That's more than he expected. Teal'c is hovering by Sam's elbow like he expects her to tip over.

Daniel hugs her and hopes he's not aggravating any injuries. The cut on her head stands out but there might be something more lurking beneath her BDU's. “We thought you were dead," he tells her.

_Where is Jack?_

Sam ruffles his hair like he's ten years old. He wants to kiss her for it. “I wouldn’t want to put you out of a job, Daniel."

"I appreciate that," he says.

Jack finally shows up while Janet is trying to clear people out of the room. It's still crowded, Sam and Teal'c are almost iconic, but nobody is stupid enough to stand in Jack's way. The blue and green sea parts for him and he steps into Janet's circle of medical warriors. He stares at Sam for too long while Janet stares at her shoes.  She's seen this play out before.

Sam is starting to look uncomfortable, Jack's face is a little too open, he might as well be professing at her balcony. Jack clears his throat and shoves his hands in his pockets. It's a classic Jack pose of indifference. Daniel's impressed he can carry it off so well under the circumstances. “Carter. Teal’c.” Jack addresses them both but he’s still only looking at Sam. “What took you so long?”  
 ****

****Part 10****

****

 

****Jack heads straight for Carter's house after work. Hammond sent her home as soon as she'd cleared medical and Jack hadn't seen her since. _Was she avoiding him?_ Maybe. He might have been a little...something... in the gate room. A little something presumptuous because it's been a long time and maybe one of them was smart enough to move on. He takes six laps around her neighborhood before calling.

She picks up quickly and he's pretty sure she knew it was him even without caller ID because he's been driving by her house every five minutes. His truck is big and her neighborhood is small so there's a good chance she noticed. He should have been using that time to rehearse. What the hell is he supposed to say?“Can I come over?”

He pulls over and waits for her to tell him he can't come over and he should just go home. This isn't what they do. Carter isn't going to invite him in to her house so they can talk, and what would they talk about anyway? The weather? The shelf life of a Twinkie? She doesn't disappoint him. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she says. _Not such a good idea_. What a fucking understatement.

“Yeah." He sighs because she's right and this was a stupid idea anyway. "Are we all right?” Jack asks, then corrects himself. "Are you all right?"

“I don’t know," she says, choosing to ignore his second question. "Are we?” It's brave of her and Jack realizes he's not ready for this. It scares him just a little that she might be.

“Sure, Carter," he does his best to sound like they're not talking about _them_. "We’re fine.” _And dandy, just fucking dandy._ He ends the call without saying goodbye. She won't take it personally. Jack sits for a while, watching the uneven, depressing light from an anemic street lamp bounce off the hood of his truck.

*****

Carter is sitting on his doorstep with one arm resting on her helmet when he gets home. Jack has no idea how she managed to get there before him. She didn't pass him on the road, he would have noticed. There must be some super-secret motorcycle route between their houses. He'll ask her some other day when he has more room in his head.

She looks at him like it's a perfectly normal day in Normal Land and this is exactly where she should be. It's all so wrong. She's holding something in her hands, twisting it back and forth between her knees. It's dark and he can't tell what it is, or had been before she mangled it.  “Can I come in?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he echoes her earlier words. Carter probably thinks he's being an ass but, for once, he's not. Being alone with Carter in his house is even less of a good idea than being alone in hers. She stands up, waiting to see if he's really going to send her home. Which, of course, he's not. His door is unlocked and he waves her in. Jack's always been a sucker for bad ideas where Carter is concerned.

They don't get any further than the hallway. He switches a light on, wonders if the kitchen would be any safer than the living room, and it's his hat-- no, not his hat, Jonah’s hat, that she's holding. “Where did you get that?” And why? Why would she keep it? Does it mean anything?

“You left it in the infirmary.” She says it like he'd left it behind yesterday. It's been three years. “I just--,” Carter pauses and stares at her hands. “I understand. I wanted you to know that.” There's more, he can see it on her face but he doesn't want to hear it.

“Yeah," he says. Three years. She's been hanging on to those memories for three damn years. _And he hasn't?_ It's a lot to process, this concept that she hasn't locked those feelings away. He'd been starting to think she'd given up on whatever it was they had. As she should because theirs has always been a dead-end street.

“I should go," she says suddenly. Jack agrees. She should go before...well, before something bad __

_(good)_

happens.

“I’ll walk you out,” says Jack. Carter looks at him like he just offered to tie her boots. Yeah, she really needs to go because Jack likes that look. He likes it a lot. “It’s dark,” he says. She doesn't buy that argument either, not that he expected her to.

“I think I can make it,” she says, and she's smiling now. Jack wonders if he's going to have to shove her out the door and slam it shut behind her.

“Dangerous neighborhood.”

“Right.”

The moon is large in the sky and the night air is cool. Almost cool enough to chase off the inappropriate thoughts camping out on the edges of his imagination. Almost. The distance to her bike seems impossibly vast. Still, it passes too quickly and she's tucking her hair into her helmet too soon and why the hell had he let her out of his house in the first place? Carter settles into the seat, closing her visor as she heels the kickstand out of the way, but she doesn't start the engine. “See you tomorrow, sir?”

_No_ , Jack wants to say. _No, you won't see me tomorrow._ Not at work. Not in a uniform that feels more restrictive every time he puts it on. Not at a job he's learning to hate even though he's scared to death of losing it, this job that keeps her in his life as much as it keeps her out. He could quit but then what? Was saving the world all they had? He tried sometimes to imagine Carter fitting into his life outside the SGC, tried to imagine her curled up on his couch watching hockey or laid back on a deck chair at his cabin. It never worked, even within the confines of his vivid imagination. Carter runs at a level Jack knows he can't sustain so he doesn't say any of these things.

"Sure," is what he does say. And he wonders if maybe, one day, Carter too will grow weary of the job and slow down enough for him to keep up. **  
**

**  
**


End file.
